Swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

The women's 400 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics programme.^[1] It was the fourth appearance of the event, which was established in 1924 after 1920 a 300 metre event was held. The competition was held from Thursday to Saturday, 13 to 15 August 1936.

Twenty swimmers from ten nations competed.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Rie Mastenbroek  Netherlands	Ragnhild Hveger  Denmark	Lenore Wingard  United States

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics.

World Record	5:16.0	Willy den Ouden	Rotterdam (NED)	12 July 1934
Olympic Record	5:28.5	Helene Madison	Los Angeles (USA)	13 August 1932

Ragnhild Hveger set a new Olympic record in the first heat with 5:28.0 minutes. In the final Rie Mastenbroek bettered the Olympic record with 5:26.4 minutes.

Results

Heats

Thursday 13 August 1936: The fastest three in each heat and the fastest fourth-placed from across the heats advanced to the semi-finals. Only two swimmers competed in heat two therefore only 15 swimmers advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Ragnhild Hveger (DEN)	5:28.0	QQ OR
2	Lenore Wingard (USA)	5:34.0	QQ
3	Piedade Coutinho (BRA)	5:35.5	QQ
4	Gladys Morcom (GBR)	6:00.8
5	Vera Harsányi (HUN)	6:14.7

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Tini Wagner (NED)	5:57.5	QQ
2	Borbála Sóthy (HUN)	6:14.8	QQ

Heat 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Grete Frederiksen (DEN)	5:39.5	QQ
2	Ans Timmermans (NED)	5:42.5	QQ
3	Louisette Fleuret (FRA)	5:46.8	QQ
4	Hatsuko Morioka (JPN)	5:51.0	qq
5	Evelyn de Lacy (AUS)	5:51.9

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Inger Carlsen (DEN)	5:57.1	QQ
2	Margaret Jeffery (GBR)	6:12.7	QQ
3	Mary Lou Petty (USA)	6:16.6	QQ

Heat 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Rie Mastenbroek (NED)	5:38.6	QQ
2	Irma Schrameková (TCH)	5:47.5	QQ
3	Kazue Kojima (JPN)	5:50.4	QQ
4	Ágnes Bíró (HUN)	6:14.3
5	Scylla Venâncio (BRA)	6:23.0

Semifinals

Friday 14 August 1936: The fastest three in each semi-final and the fastest fourth-placed from across the heats advanced to the final. As both fourth placed swimmers set the same time both advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Rie Mastenbroek (NED)	5:40.3	QQ
2	Lenore Wingard (USA)	5:42.2	QQ
3	Grete Frederiksen (DEN)	5:42.5	QQ
4	Tini Wagner (NED)	5:45.9	qq
5	Irma Schrameková (TCH)	5:46.0
6	Hatsuko Morioka (JPN)	5:49.1
7	Borbála Sóthy (HUN)	6:11.2

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Ragnhild Hveger (DEN)	5:33.7	QQ
2	Piedade Coutinho (BRA)	5:42.5	QQ
3	Kazue Kojima (JPN)	5:43.5	QQ
4	Mary Lou Petty (USA)	5:45.9	qq
5	Louisette Fleuret (FRA)	5:46.1
6	Ans Timmermans (NED)	5:49.4
7	Inger Carlsen (DEN)	5:55.0
8	Margaret Jeffery (GBR)	6:07.2

Final

Saturday 15 August 1936:

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Rie Mastenbroek (NED)	5:26.4 OR
2	Ragnhild Hveger (DEN)	5:27.5
3	Lenore Wingard (USA)	5:29.0
4	Mary Lou Petty (USA)	5:32.2
5	Piedade Coutinho (BRA)	5:35.2
6	Kazue Kojima (JPN)	5:43.1
7	Grete Frederiksen (DEN)	5:45.0
8	Tini Wagner (NED)	5:46.0